EXCLUSIVE Seven-year-old boy set to inherit Liam Payne’s huge fortune: The staggering sum he left Bear revealed by KATIE HIND – and why Cheryl Tweedy withdrew from public life

As he held his newborn son in his arms,  Liam Payne  knew he was truly in love, perhaps for the first time in his life.

One hand supporting little Bear’s neck and the other on his bottom, the singer clasped him like he was the most precious thing in the world, just minutes after his birth at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on March 22, 2017.

He later posted the photograph on Instagram, alongside the words: ‘My close friends and family know there are very few times when I’m left speechless… wow!’

It was a moment that Bear’s mother, the singer and former X Factor judge Cheryl Tweedy, who is believed to have taken the photograph, will hold in her heart for ever, now that their little boy will never see his father again. Liam, the former One Direction star, died on Wednesday evening, after falling from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He was only 31. He did everything so early in life: fame at 16, fatherhood at 23, and now a terrible, senseless death before he really got to know his son properly.

Liam Payne with Cheryl Tweedy at the BRITs in 2018 before they announced their split

Heartbroken Liam Payne fans sing ‘Night changes’ in Berlin vigil

For Cheryl, 41, losing Liam is the latest sadness in what has been a tormenting few years for her. She had struggled to maintain the relationship between her much younger ex and their son, as Liam’s behaviour became increasingly erratic.

For Liam was far from a traditional dad, and he acknowledged himself that he was more ‘rock ‘n’ roll’. While he would regularly call Bear, he was rarely physically present in his life – although he didn’t shirk parental responsibility.

For, as I can reveal today, there were some areas in life in which Liam showed almost prescient maturity, and he provided well for Bear.

The seven-year-old stands to inherit the £30 million fortune that Liam made during his boyband years and which, despite his drug and alcohol addictions, he managed to cling on to.

He was also careful to invest in property, having bought a mansion in Buckinghamshire.

Friends say that some years ago Liam made arrangements for his money to go to his only child in the event of his death, despite the fact that there would often be thousands of miles between them, as the singer spent a lot of time in America. Most of their interaction occurred via video calls on FaceTime.

‘Liam had some very sensible people around him for a time and he adored Bear so much,’ said a source close to the late star. ‘He always wanted to do the right thing by him financially.

‘It is a small consolation that Bear will never want for anything, that he will at least benefit from that.’

But it will be Cheryl, supported by her loyal mother Joan, who will be left to deal with the emotional fallout from Liam’s death.

Despite their relationship ending abruptly in 2018, friends say Cheryl will be devastated. Despite having ‘a few dates’, Cheryl is not widely known to have had any serious boyfriends since Liam.

While Cheryl is fiercely protective of Bear’s privacy and never lets him show his face to the world, those who know him say he is “absolutely beautiful.”

Another added: ‘Oh, but he’ll stay with his genes, right?’

This summer alone, Liam described Bear as a “miniature version” of himself, before sarcastically adding: “As if we need another me in the world.”

‘It’s sad they never had a proper father-son relationship,’ said a friend of Liam’s,

‘Liam was there, a lost soul, alone, thousands of miles away from home – it was horrible. He was always calling Bear; they talked a lot and Liam would see him as much as he could.

‘Despite the difficulties we now know so well, Liam still loves Bear very, very much.’

Liam holds his newborn son Bear in his arms in March 2017 as if he were the most precious thing in the world

Like fans, Cheryl had seen social media videos documenting Liam’s increasingly disturbing behavior, and she was certainly aware of his drug use.

Cheryl has been strongly against drugs after losing her childhood friend, footballer John Courtney, to a heroin overdose in 2005 when he was just 21. She has supported Liam in his battle with addiction.

In the book Cheryl Cole: Her Story – The Unauthorised Biography, John’s mother Angie revealed that Cheryl wrote her son a letter begging him not to ruin her life.

‘It kept me away from drugs for life,’ Cheryl later said. ‘That nightmare devastated all of John’s family and friends.’

I was told: ‘Cheryl tried her best to look after Liam even though they weren’t together. She wanted Bear to have a father, even if he wasn’t there as much as she wanted him to be.’

Last July, when Liam revealed he had completed 100 days of rehab in Louisiana after hitting “rock bottom”, he thanked Cheryl for her support.

‘More than anything, I want to thank [Bear] and his mother for giving me a little bit of freedom to go and get well at that time because I had to,’ he shared in a YouTube video.

Cheryl and Liam’s relationship was complicated and short-lived. They were revealed to be dating in 2016 after Cheryl split from her husband, French playboy Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.

The end of her second marriage – she was previously married to footballer Ashley Cole from 2006 to 2010 – left her devastated.

Liam first met Cheryl in 2008 while trying to become a star at the age of 14 on The X Factor, auditioning with a version of Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon.

Liam with Bear, where just this summer the pop star described Bear as his ‘little replica’

Pop veteran Cheryl, then 25, had shot to fame six years earlier on ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals, when Girls Aloud were formed. She was already a bona fide star – although Payne was clearly not too fazed by her fame, as he winked playfully at her during her performance. 

Two years later, when Liam returned to The X Factor and was brought into the band that would become One Direction, he was just 16 and Cheryl was 27.

While Simon Cowell was appointed as a mentor to the band, she still criticized him live on television every Saturday night.

Their relationship began in 2016, when he was 22 and she was 32.

Despite the ten-year age gap raising eyebrows, Liam’s friends said he couldn’t believe his luck. ‘He was head over heels in love with her,’ said one.

They attend a number of entertainment events together and Cheryl regularly visits Liam’s £5million bachelor flat in Woking, Surrey.

Cheryl’s real desire, however, was to be a mother. I had had many conversations with Cheryl over the years about her desire to be a mother, and as she turned 30, she was desperate to find the man of her dreams.

As Liam’s friends pointed out to me, he is the ‘perfect baby daddy’. After all, in addition to being extremely handsome, Liam is also very rich and very kind.

Liam, on the other hand, didn’t expect to become a father so soon. At 23, he was a young man about to sign a multimillion-pound solo deal, and he realised he needed a female fan base. He knew that being a father to an older girlfriend might make him less attractive.

However, they still tried to work on their relationship and Cheryl moved into Liam’s house in Surrey, where they prepared for the baby’s arrival together.

But after Cheryl gave birth, the pressure of being a young father became too much for Liam and there were some ‘fierce arguments’, I’m told.

By early 2018, when Bear was not yet 1 year old, the couple’s relationship was almost over.

There was a mandatory joint appearance at the BRIT Awards. Cheryl and Liam, keen to keep their split under wraps, dressed up and posed on the red carpet.

However, by July, things were over and they announced on social media that their love story had come to an end.

Cheryl says death of ex-partner Liam Payne was ‘indescribably painful’

Despite their split, the two have tried their best to keep their son out of the spotlight, only allowing people to catch occasional glimpses of him in social media posts.

In a rare glimpse into her parenting style, Cheryl described herself in a 2019 interview as “strict”, adding: “[Liam] is a lot softer than I am”.

Liam then helped pay for a £4 million home for Cheryl and Bear in the village of Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire, before buying a house for himself nearby.

A friend said: ‘The bear was the only beautiful thing that came out of that troubled relationship.’

Bear remains Cheryl’s focus, and she is determined that he will not suffer the same trappings of fame as his father. Or even the trappings that she has suffered.

Apart from a brief foray into the limelight earlier this year with the Girls Aloud reunion tour, Cheryl largely withdrew from the public eye around the time she gave birth to Bear. Friends say she eventually couldn’t handle the fame and wanted to retreat.

‘Cheryl hates being talked about all the time,’ said a friend. ‘She really doesn’t like being famous at all and it makes her very unhappy.

‘We know now, and so does Liam. If anyone knows the pitfalls of celebrity, it’s Cheryl, and she’ll do everything she can to protect Bear from all of it.’

But the real sadness for Bear was that his father died when he had just come to know him.